A renewed crackdown on Pensacola restaurants allowing dogs in outdoor seating areas was prompted by a complaint from a former city councilwoman, officials said Thursday.

The city council in 2013 adopted a so-called “doggy dining” ordinance, which among other things required businesses allowing dogs outside to obtain a permit, erect a physical barrier around the outside dining area, and to provide hand sanitizer at every table. That ordinance has been rarely enforced, however.

But a complaint last week from former city councilwoman Diane Mack prompted city code enforcement officers to visit downtown businesses with a copy of the ordinance in hand, officials said Thursday.

“I walk to the downtown post office from Wright Street along Palafox just about every day now so I’ve had the opportunity to observe regularly what goes on at the eateries along the way,” Mack wrote in an email to city code enforcement administrator Steve Wineki. “In the last several weeks I have seen dogs at outside tables at: Polanza, Hopjacks, Wine Bar, Dog House, Beef O’Brady’s. I am betting that not a single one has gone through the city’s permitting process to do so.”

Former Pensacola city councilwoman Diane Mack speaking to the Women’s Civic Forum in 2013. (City of Pensacola/Special to The Pulse)

Mack served on the city council from 2009-2011 and was not on the council when the doggy dining ordinance was approved. The owner of a local advertising agency, Mack ran unsuccessfully to become Pensacola’s first “strong mayor” in 2010.

“Finally, yesterday I took the attached photo of two dogs at a table outside of Hopjacks,” Mack added. “They had been provided water bowls by the establishment. Without having gone through the process, the management of these places has not been required to train servers about what is allowable behavior. I have not been back to Hub Stacey’s since I watched a server pet a dog and then go right back to delivering plates of food.”

The 2013 ordinance specifically prohibits restaurant employees from touching or petting dogs while serving food, and requires them to wash their hands immediately if they do.

Wineki responded to Mack this week to inform her that code enforcement officers had visited Palafox Street restaurants with a copy of the ordinance, records show. Officers didn’t observe any dogs during those visits, Wineki said.

Many Palafox Street businesses hold licenses to use portions of the city sidewalk for outdoor dining areas, and for many of those businesses, fencing off the dining area from the sidewalk simply wouldn’t be an option.

Downtown restauranteur Joe Abston, who owns both Hopjacks Pizza Kitchen & Taproom and The Tin Cow on Palafox Street, called the crackdown a “kneejerk reaction.”

Abston says he’s talked to city code enforcement about coming into compliance with the ordinance and has gotten confusing answers as to what constitutes a physical barrier.

A dog hangs out in front of Carmen’s Lunch Bar on Palafox Street during the annual Paws on Palafox event. (Downtown Improvement Board/Special to The Pulse)

“Code enforcement is telling me that almost anything could be a barrier, including a table or a chair,” Abston said Thursday. “It seems like this is a haphazard ordinance and it’s unfortunate that the city leaves things on the books that don’t make any sense.”

City officials said Thursday that only three Pensacola businesses had applied for and received a “doggy dining” permit: Tijuana Flats, located near Cordova Mall; The Oar House, located on Bayou Chico; and Gulf Coast Brewery, located on Heinberg Street east of the downtown core. Business owners who are found to have violated the ordinance could be subject to a fine of up to $500 or up to 60 days in jail, according to the ordinance.

The latest crackdown on dogs isn’t the first time pups have been targeted downtown. After dogs became a regular sight at the popular Saturday morning Palafox Market, organizers in 2013 began posting signs prohibiting dogs, citing a decades-old city ordinance which bars dogs in a variety of public places, including in public parks and at festivals and other public gatherings. That ordinance remains on the books.

City councilwoman Sherri Myers said Thursday that she plans to review the ordinances to ensure that any city laws regulating where dogs can be do not apply to service animals.

24 Responses

Diane Mack, you are an absolute idiot. I LIVE on Palafox and spend everyday eating at these establishments. You must be one sour woman to make a complainant based on your daily “walk to the post office”. Get a life.

Really? How childish. We are social beings and so are our dogs! Everyone (except Diane Mack) lights up and gets “instantly” happy when they come upon a dog. It promotes socializing among total strangers, which is a good thing, Ms. Mack. Unbelievable. Imagine if Mack had become the Mayor. Mind your own D business and stay away from downtown. We would all appreciate it.

Diane Mack I’m so sorry for your lonely, boring life that you need to pick on inicent animals, please I urged you to go to your local dog pound and adopt a pet it will bring much love into your life and you’re finally find happiness, it would be a shame for you to diameter of a life without knowing the love of an animal

I see why you’re no longer in the government, but it’s great to see you haven’t given up your desire to tell people what they can and can’t do. I believe there is a post office on Jordan Street. Why don’t you use that one and not ruin the culture those of us who patronize the privately run business on Palafox so enjoy.

I thought the Council adopted the law in 2010? Diane Mack was then on the Council and I believe she was the only NO vote. I even seem to recall her saying about her position, “I am immovable.” I guess it is possible that the law might have been amended since then and I missed it but for sure the original law was adopted in early 2010. I went back in the Council files and reviewed the original Council Memorandum. It is hard to understand why businesses would so openly ignore the permitting requirement given the onerous penalties prescribed for violations. It is hard to understand why Code Enforcement would be confused about the plain language meaning of the words “tables, chairs” versus the phrase “any fences or other barriers” if that is the case. Both are separately mentioned in the same subsection. Putting aside the lack of enforcement, and business owner’s disdain for the law, the friction point that could have been the focus of the recent PNJ story is the “physical barrier” term used in the city law. If you give the words in the city law their plain language meaning, tables and chairs are not physical barriers. The state law does not require the erection of a physical barrier on a public sidewalk. I guess it is possible that there may be case law that imposes that burden. The state law describes the minimum requirements to allow “doggie dining.” A local government to include the City of Pensacola can impose additional requirements so long as no law prohibits it. Section 12-12-8(B)(6) in the city’s Municipal Code imposes an additional “physical barrier” requirement. If that is the sticking point, all the Council needs to do is adopt an ordinance amending that subsection out of existence.

I do not have a dog, do not want a dog, but love seeing the dogs with their owners eating at outside restaurants.
They’re probably better trained then most humans and are definitely controlled better then a lot of adult and children eating inside at restaurants. I travel a lot and it’s popular everywhere. Let it go Ms. Mack. Take your grand kids with you next time you’re walking on Palafox and they’ll give you a different perspective. They’ll probably pull you over to pat one

It must be a miserable life to want others to be as unhappy as you are. If you don’t like what you see, change you location or your attitude. If dogs don’t like you, then that just tells me what kind of person you are!!

It appears to me that Ms. Mack is bored or angry about her failure to become major a few years ago. As long as owners manage their animals it would seem like having dogs at eating establishments would be appropriate. Ms Mack needs to get a life or better yet adopt a dog so she would have a friend. 😜

Thank you Diane. Not everyone wants to walk across the street to avoid the dogs. Not everyone thinks it is cute that a dog is near their food. Not everyone wants to spend their hard earned money in a restaurant where animals are smelling up the room.

Ever go to someones house who has animals? It stinks…smells like fritos and not in a good way.

You go to a restaurant and hope to smell their food and instead…FIDO has a right to mush up your olafactory senses with his stink because animal lovers think they rate over a human who doesn’t want dog hair in their soup?

I am so done with people who think their right to invade everyones space with their dogs, overides my right to walk in an area where I don’t have to deal with dogs.

I loved my toby very much and still keep his picture on my wall. I still think about his birthday july the 7th. I still visit the friends who have his off spring and long for his life to be near me. He was an amazing animal. But I never made him someone else’s issue.
What people are doing today is sickening. They take their dogs everywhere. Well damn it…I too am done with everone assuming this is ok.

That isn’t your decision to make. The owner of the establishment gets to decide who’s invited and who is not. I highly doubt your olfactory senses are so keen you can smell a dog lying on the sidewalk. It sickens you that people take their dogs out instead of having an unsocialized creature treated like a piece of furniture or a lawn ornament? You don’t sound like a nice person.

Your Toby must have had one hell of a miserable lonely life. Unless of course you never went anywhere and stayed at home with him all the time. Or was he chained up in your yard? You sound like the kind that would do that. Dogs are social beings. And for the record most loving humans ensure their dogs don’t smell. Maybe that was your failing. Don’t tar others with the same brush.

Oh and by the way…I dont care what you nay sayers and dog lovers think about me or what I think. All I know is my dad taught me if you lay down with dogs, you get up with the nasty…most of you probably sleep with your dogs so….

I don’t have a dog, nor do I “sleep with dogs” yet I am finding your personal viewpoints completely ignorant and your grammar is atrocious. Please, don’t spread your ignorance and negativity around! While you are at it, you should probably refrain from reproduction of any kind… We don’t need MORE people like you in this world.

There’s often a sign at the Palafox Market which says “no dogs” so of course there are dogs there every Saturday. And everyone loves the dogs. The kids pet them and so do adults. Let’s get rid of the signs and keep the dogs. No one pets a sign.

This is ridiculous… most dogs are very well behaved at the restaurants and yes, I am one of “those” people who bring their dogs to the restaurants…. I wonder if those who are so opposed are so “clean” themselves… are you a smoker??? Do you wash her hands before’you eat? Do you wash your hands after you use the restroom?????? I mean … you may be dirtier than most of these dogs. My god, the frigging dogs are not touching your food, your plate, your silverware. May I ask you Ms. Mack….. are you so perfect!!!!???????? Are you such a miserable person that you have to make it difficult for others?? Just mean……

Sounds as though she has nothing better to do and dislikes animals. Why would you purposely go out of your way to do this? I can guarantee that she wont get elected to anything now. This is exactly what happens to older people that have no life, they want to get into someone elses business. Some things never surprise me.

Diane Mack, it’s a good thing you’re no longer in any position of governmental power. You clearly care more about your personal ‘pet peeves’ (pun intended) than the wellbeing and vibrancy of the community. Your egocentric, mean spirited behavior makes me think that dog friendly restaurants and patrons are likely not the only demographic you’re discriminating against. I bet it extends to everyone and everything that doesn’t fit your bigoted cookie cutter. Shame! Shame! Shame!

Enaj….actually, I took Toby to petland and to the dog parks all the time. DOG PARK is the point here.
I also took crap bags with me and cleaned up after him. I did not let him piss or crap in someones yard. He never had a chain on him but he did wear a harness anytime we left the house.

TOBY also had an airconditioned home for which he could enter and exit at will. Toby helped me with the animalnrescues I took in as well. He would nudge them and be playful until they felt secure enough to love again.

You should not judge someine just because they dont believe animals should be at public areas not intended for canines.

A liberal Diane Mack is one of millions of Americans who are good and kind and loving people who do not believe pets should be anywhere near reataurant food, where people pay money to smell the food not dog stank and eat foid that doesn’t have animalnhaors flying through the air and landing in their food..

Good and kind people don’t use the police power of the state against peaceful business owners because they don’t like a particular policy. It’s what people do that makes them good or bad, and I see no good in woman, just evil.

I don’t have a dog in this fight no pun intended but I eat quite often on the sidewalks of Palafox and I also stop regularly for coffee Amidst all the dogs. I have never once smelled a dog,stepped in poop, or encountered the “skank” of a dog in any these places.
Lighten up people there’s 1 million
places in Pensacola to eat. Go somewhere else